Harvest Tales - Cherokee County 02

Edna Patch Hanks

Grandpa Got Stuck in a Straw Stack

[One of our neighbors ] was telling me about an experience they had. They threshed, then his Dad went out (they tried to keep the straw in a good pile so the animals couldn't waste so much), and he was out there alone except for a little kid. The little kid went to the house. [The family] wondered [because] usually he didn't come to the house; he stayed with his grandpa. And grandpa didn't come in, so they went out to look for him. They couldn't find him, so they asked the little kid where he last saw his grandpa. . . . and he told them "up on there." They said the straw had separated somehow, there was a hole there and the old man had gone into it head first, and there was no way he could get out of that hole. His feet were sticking straight up. He would have soon died because there was no way he could get out of the hole. Somehow when the pile formed, it left a hole and he just went in head first.